We’re super excited to announce Recover as the official shirt supplier for this year’s Novant Health Charlotte Marathon! Racing through the streets of Charlotte, NC since 2005, the Charlotte Marathon features a full marathon a half-marathon, a 5K and a kids 1 mile fun, and draws competitors from across the country. Although we’re not sure we’ll be joining them mile after mile (26.2 – phew!), we’ll be supporting this local event in full force and we're stoked to see our shirts being put through their training paces!
Think you’ve got what it takes to run a marathon? Here are some fun facts:
1) The marathon began (legend has it) in 490 B.C when a Greek soldier named Pheidippides ran 25 miles from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news that Greece had defeated the Persians. He made the distance and delivered his message, but apparently collapsed and died afterwards.
2) It made a comeback in 1896, when the marathon was introduced into the modern Olympic Games (also in Athens!). Back then it was only 24.8 miles and involved just 17 competitors (in the 2012 London Games it had 105!).
3) It’s estimated you burn about 2,600 calories during the entire race! In fact, many runners throw pasta parties to carb-load and consume extra calories in the lead up before the race!
4) It’s thought humans are the best species on the planet equipped to run marathons – we are even able to beat horses!
5) The fastest woman – Paula Radcliffe – can run a marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds. Patrick Makau Musyoki is the fastest man, running 2 hours, 3 minutes and 38 seconds.
6) A marathon is longer than the diameter of a neutron star.
7) The oldest marathon finisher is Fauja Singh who ran the Toronto Marathon at 100 years old! The youngest is Budhia who has completed 48 marathons before he turned 5.
8) The oldest annual marathon is the Boston Marathon, which started in 1897.
9) Approximately 0.5% of the United States population has completed a marathon.
10) You can also complete a marathon by running up and down a football field 504 times!
